THURSDAY, MAY 10, 2012

DARK HORSE COMICS FOR AUGUST

4" DOMO VINYL FIGURES

Our friend Domo is paying us a much-welcomed visit once again with a release of three all-new styles of flocked, fizzy, and flavorful fun figures available in lime, orange, and grape! Domo is also paying tribute to all of the marvelous athletes from around the world participating in the summer Olympic games by painting his body in gold, silver, and bronze! Go Domo!

A CHRISTMAS CAROL: THE NIGHT THAT CHANGED THE LIFE OF ELIZA SCROOGE HC

Rod Espinosa (W/A/Cover)

Charles Dickens's holiday classic, A Christmas Carol, is given a fresh twist--with a female Scrooge! Rod Espinosa (The Courageous Princess) adapts and illustrates this story of the miserly Eliza Scrooge, who is visited by the ghosts of the past, present, and future on one fateful Christmas eve.

Dancy Flammarion has survived monsters and ghosts, demons and blood--only to be trapped in a town eaten away from the inside by dark magic. Now, Dancy and her companions make their way to the heart of the darkness: the wolves' lair, and the terrible choice that waits within.

The expedition to Quor-Toth has taken an unplanned turn for Angel, Faith, Willow, and Connor. While they struggle to survive the horrors that surround them, they have also taken on a mission to stage a great escape--and not just for themselves! They must act fast, before the effect that this hell dimension is having on their thoughts and emotions overcomes them!

32 pages, $2.99, in stores on August 29.

THE ART OF PORTAL 2 HC

Valve (W/A/Cover)

Valve and Dark Horse pull back the curtain to give you a backstage tour of one of the most innovative video games of the decade! The Art of Portal 2 walks you through the visual evolution of the award-winning game, from concept to completion, with never-before-seen concept art and insights from the writers and artists behind the Portal series.

Axe Cop has taken the comics world by storm! The cop with an axe fights bad guys by any means necessary! Written by 8-year-old Malachai Nicolle and drawn by his 31-year-old brother Ethan Nicolle, this brand-new Axe Cop story promises a mind-bending joy ride of imaginative fun!

32 pages, $3.50, in stores on August 29.

BEASTS OF BURDEN: NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH

Evan Dorkin (W) and Jill Thompson (A/Cover)

Adventure, mystery, horror, and humor thrive on every page of the Beasts of Burden. The four-legged occult-investigating team--a heroic gang of dogs and one cat--are doing their best to protect their home, Burden Hill, from a chicken-stealing goblin, a frightful basilisk, and a strange lost herd of sheep! This special one-shot reprints three stories from Dark Horse Presents!

In the Scottish Highlands, a rogue scientist who escaped the bloody massacre in B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: Russia assembles a paranormal cult bent on world destruction. Can the B.P.R.D. hunt down this group in time, or will demons be released into a world already teetering on the edge of apocalypse?

32 pages, $3.50, in stores on August 29.

BRIDE OF THE WATER GOD VOLUME 12 TP

Mi-Kyung Yun (W/A/Cover)

At long last, Habaek and Soah are married in a lavish ceremony before all the gods! But that very night, before the troubled water god and his beautiful human bride can consummate their love, the barriers surrounding the lunar palace are breached. Habaek's father is kidnapped, and no god or human is safe as a celestial civil war erupts! The twelfth installment in Mi-Kyung Yun's sumptuous Bride of the Water God manhwa series cranks up the action and drama, with new alliances forming and ancient friendships splintering!

By working for Deepscan--the company that recruits Slayers as bodyguards--Buffy thought she would disengage herself from the world of demons and garner a more significant income, to boot. While the income may get her closer to paying off pesky student loans, the demony population is closer to her than ever, thanks to her first client. Buffy, under the tutelage of a disgruntled and heartbroken Kennedy, has her work cut out for her and is forced to call on the honorable Eldre Koh for help, culminating in a little demon-on-demon violence.

Having fought to regain his soul after falling in love with the Slayer Buffy, the once-terrifying vampire villain Spike has been a bit less fearsome (to humans, at least). On his own adventure, Spike is forced to examine the man he once was, the man he is now, and the man he still hopes to become. As master of a steampunk ship filled with loyal, oversized alien cockroaches, Spike embarks on a journey to the dark side of the moon, setting into motion an adventure filled with demons, witches, and others who brew new evil in the world without magic!

32 pages, $2.99, in stores on August 22.

CHERUBS! HC

Bryan Talbot (W) and Mark Stafford (A/Cover)

Falsely accused of heaven's first homicide, five churlish cherubim escape to New York in pursuit of the renegade archangel Abbadon on the eve of the Apocalypse! Befriended by exotic-dancer Mary and chased by unstoppable Seraphim terminators, the Cherubs alone stand against hell's hordes as Satan prepares to make war, not love!

Artist Becky Cloonan rejoins Brian Wood for a new story arc! Hearing of an impostor committing atrocities in his name, Conan returns to Cimmeria to confront the scoundrel. In the frozen North of Conan's birth, it is now Belit who is out of her element!

32 pages, $3.50, in stores on Augsut 8.

THE CREEP #0

John Arcudi (W), Jonathan Case (A), and Frank Miller (Cover)

A young boy puts a gun in his mouth and pulls the trigger. The police don't care. Not about his death or the death of his best friend two months earlier. The dead boy's mom seeks help from an old flame that's employed as a detective. What she doesn't know is that he suffers from acromegaly--a physical deformity resulting in brutish facial features at mid-life. Will his freakish appearance get in the way of solving the case?

With stories by comic-book titans Bernie Wrightson, Richard Corben, Howard Chaykin, John Severin, and Archie Goodwin, this is one terrifying tome that you DO NOT want to miss out on! This volume also features an enlightening foreword by horror comics writer Joshua Hale Fialkov (I, Vampire; Echoes) and reprints all Dear Uncle Creepy and Creepy's Catacombs text pieces and all color stories that appeared in this stellar 1970s run! Collects the original Creepy issues #64-#68.

When the six-person crew of the spaceship Raza wakes from stasis in the farthest reaches of space, the memory of their pasts has been wiped clean. The only clue to their identities is a cargo bay full of weaponry and a destination--a remote mining colony that is about to become a war zone! With no idea whose side they are on, can these amnesiacs leave behind thoughts of their histories and do the right thing, or will their pasts catch up with them? Collects issues #1-#4 of the miniseries.

104 pages, $14.99, in stores on Oct. 10.

DEVA ZAN HC

Yoshitaka Amano (W/A/Cover)

In Japanese Buddhism, twelve generals--the Juni Jinsho--stood guard over the cosmos at the points of the zodiac. But now they have vanished, and nothing stands between us and the forces of darkness, except Deva Zan, a samurai without a memory. To restore order to existence, he must marshal not only his own fighting skill, but find companions that can cross the boundaries of time and space--to join him in a battle that will stretch from the fields of ancient Japan, to the streets of modern New York City--and to dimensions beyond human comprehension! Dark Horse has the honor to publish Deva Zan, Yoshitaka Amano's first fantasy novel as an author as well as an illustrator! After an epic ten years of planning, Amano has made Deva Zan his personal expression of the legends of Asia for his Western readership.

In this essential story from the lead writer of BioWare's Dragon Age games, a king travels to an empire of evil mages to uncover the fate of his lost father! Accompanied by the pirate captain Isabela and the underworld merchant Varric, King Alistair will stop at nothing to learn the truth--even if it means battling an army of cultists single-handed!

Immediately following the events of TNT's Falling Skies season 1, the second Mass gets pinned down by alien forces and sustains heavy losses. With an army of skitters closing in, the group shields themselves in an armory in Fitchburg, ready to finish the battle once and for all.

136 pages, $9.99, in stores on Oct. 10.

FATIMA: THE BLOOD SPINNERS #3

Gilbert Hernandez (W/A/Cover)

Love and Rockets' Gilbert Hernandez raises the stakes and the craziness as Fatima's war against drug-created zombies seems lost! When Fatima's superiors come up with a last-ditch solution--to put she and the few other surviving agents into suspended animation, to awaken once the flesh-eaters have starved to death--are they saving the planet or condemning Fatima to a world completely overtaken by the undead?

When down-and-out alien exterminator Heath Huston stumbles upon an extraterrestrial plot to commit genocide against the human species, he must put down the bottle and resume his role as a peacekeeper . . . as The Last Fear Agent. This deluxe hardcover omnibus, the first of two, collects issues #1-#15 of the acclaimed Fear Agent comics, along with half of the Tales of the Fear Agent side stories, covers, pinups, and artists' sketch galleries!

480 pages, $49.99, in stores on Oct. 31.

FINDER: TALISMAN HC & LTD HC

Carla Speed McNeil (W/A/Cover)

Since 1996, Finder has set the bar for science-fiction storytelling, with a lush, intricate world and compelling characters. Finder: Talisman is the story of a book -- the book beloved by misfits and castaways, once glimpsed and forever longed for -- and of Marcie, the kid who never gives up her search for magic and meaning. Now, the fan-favorite story is collected in a new, oversized hardcover edition and a limited-edition hardcover signed by creator Carla Speed McNeil!

The most iconic image in the acclaimed HBO series Game of Thrones is, of course, the titular Iron Throne itself. It is located in the Red Keep in the city of King's Landing. When they say, “Win or die," this is what they are talking about. When King Aegon the Conqueror forged it, the swords of all the hundreds of lords who surrendered to him and offered him fealty were melted down into a throne of imposing size and appearance. Dark Horse Deluxe, working with HBO Licensing and the talented artisans at Gentle Giant Studios, have replicated the throne prop from the series. Not a single sword has been overlooked, in either sculpture or paint application.

14" tall, limited edition of 500, $295, in stores on Nov. 28.

GAME OF THRONES: DIRE WOLF BOOKENDS

The Starks are an ancient house, whose ancestral castle Winterfell was built thousands of years in the past. Winterfell, is located in the center of the northern province of the Seven Kingdoms, on the Kingsroad that runs from King's Landing to the Wall. Beneath Winterfell lie the Stark family crypts, ancient final resting place of the line. The crypts are guarded by carved dire wolves, an unusually large and intelligent species of wolf represented the family's house sigil. Dark Horse has worked with the production team of Game of Thrones, facilitated by HBO Licensing, to reference the actual prop from the series as the basis for a sculptural set of polystone bookends.

8" tall, $79.99, in stores on Sept. 26.

GANTZ VOLUME 25 TP

Hiroya Oku (W/A/Cover)

As the Osaka Gantz team falls to the alien monster boss, Kaze of the Tokyo team takes the fight to the superbeast to save the mortally wounded little Takeshi. But even the powerful Kaze is no match for the shape-shifting fiend, and the Tokyo team musters a desperate offensive that could turn the tide . . . or seal their doom!

216 pages, black and white, $12.99, in stores on Oct. 24.

THE GOON #41

Eric Powell (W/A/C/Cover) and Mark Buckingham (A)

What's an enterprising, demonic witch doctor and former mob boss of the undead to do when he finds himself down on his luck? Witchcraft for hire, of course. The Zombie Priest, now going under the alias of Mr. Corpus, proves there's no keeping a good fiend down and he's still more than willing to make trouble for the Goon!

After a swordfight, Amane, a young samurai with a haunted past, is left for dead--only to be saved by a mysterious tattooist who imbues Amane with the immortal spirit of an oni demon. From that day on, Amane ages no more.

Amane learns of another with a similar oni--one that requires its host to kill--which leads Amane to the realization that the “other" is the man who murdered his sister years ago. But when his decades-long quest for the murderer causes him to cross paths with a maniacal serial killer intent on murdering the woman Amane loves, the only one who can help him is the man who killed his sister. Collects the four-issue miniseries.

96 pages, $14.99, in stores on Oct. 10.

JAM NOVEL

Yahtzee Croshaw (W)

We were prepared for an earthquake. We had a flood plan in place. We could even have dealt with zombies. Probably.

But no one expected the end to be quite so . . . sticky . . . or strawberry scented.

Yahtzee Croshaw (Mogworld, Zero Punctuation Reviews) returns to print with a follow-up to his debut: Jam, a dark comedy about the one apocalypse no one predicted.

The Heliopic Brotherhood of Ra hold a Victorian themed party complete with the unrolling of a mummy, with decidedly unexpected results, including a gun-blazing vigilante promising justice!

32 pages, $3.50, in stores on August 22.

MARVEL CLASSIC CHARACTER SERIES 2 #3: CAPTAIN AMERICA

The third release in this second series is considered one of the greatest comic book heroes of all time: Captain America. Created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby in 1941, Cap became one of the most popular and inspirational characters of World War II. After fading away in the 1950s, Captain America was revived during the 1960s Marvel explosion by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee in The Avengers #4, released in March 1964. He has been a mainstay of the Marvel line ever since.

Limited to 750 numbered pieces, packaged in its own tin box, with a pin-back button and character booklet
Measures 5" tall, $49.95, in stores on Oct. 17.